


and when the sun rises (will all the nightmares fade?)

by pawn_vs_player



Series: it takes and it takes and it takes (aka: Adrian writes fic to cope with Infinity War) [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Animate Object, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Because of course he does, Eye of Agamatto, Gen, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Time Travel, so i'm just going to have to make it happen myself, stephen talks with the time stone, the infinity stones are sentient, what i thought would happen at That scene but didn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-06 04:19:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14633937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pawn_vs_player/pseuds/pawn_vs_player
Summary: INFINITY WAR SPOILERSStephen Strange makes a different choice.





	and when the sun rises (will all the nightmares fade?)

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the last day of Adrian's Exam Week Update Extravaganza!!  
> ...yes, it's another IW fic. I don't know what y'all were expecting.

Quill and Gamora. That's what it all hinges on. She's always dead already, but if he finds out (there is only one way he doesn't), Thanos wins. 

As soon as Mantis begins to speak, he knows that this is not the timeline they win.

Or, well, it's not the timeline they win on Titan. There are timelines where they win later - or rather, there are timelines where Thanos is defeated later. "They" do not win. By then, most of them are dead.

Including him.

Stephen is not terribly afraid of dying. He accepted the possibility with the role of Sorcerer Supreme. He is afraid of making the wrong decision and making this one of the timelines where they do not win at all.

He wishes he had more time to think, but he doesn't. Tony Stark is bleeding out, nearly in Thanos' arms. The clock is ticking. He only has so many options left.

... _The clock is ticking._

He's a fucking idiot. 

There are more options from earlier points. It's not exactly the best time now, but it's not too late either. He's the Sorcerer Supreme, the guardian of the Time Stone. This is his element. 

Even Thanos, with four Stones, cannot turn back time without the requisite Stone. This is Stephen's move. 

"Stop," he rasps, throat sore with dust. "Stop!"

Thanos stops. Both he and Tony turn to look at Stephen, the latter with difficulty, blood trickling down into his goatee. Stephen's stomach twists: he needs to do this quickly.

"Let him live," he says, fighting down the instinct to keep the Stone locked away, knowing that what happens next must happen - "Let him live, and I will give you the Time Stone."

He can see the denial in Tony's eyes, hear Spider-man's quiet disbelieving murmur from somewhere hidden in the rubble. He doesn't let that stop him.

Thanos pulls his blade from Tony's abdomen and takes two steps away. Tony, never one to be distracted by pain, quickly seals up his wound. Stephen nearly winces at the rudimentary nature of it, knows it'll be infected soon if nothing is done, knows Tony has already lost so much blood - but he can't do anything, and soon, it won't have happened at all. 

( _Tony Stark must live_ , says the Stone, pulsing against his mind as it leads him through reality after reality;  _If you want a future, Tony Stark must live._ )

(Stephen knows better than to ignore the instruction of magical instruments, especially all-powerful eldritch ones.)

"Show it to me," Thanos demands. Stephen grits his teeth against the shrieking of his instincts -  _dangerdangerpredatorenemyrunrunfightfightdangerenemydon'tgivein_ \- and twists his hand, calling it forth. 

( _Not yet, dear,_ he whispers.  _You'll see them soon. Not yet. Be patient for me, please._ )

( _I am nothing if not patient,_ the Stone says. If it was human, Stephen might think it was amused with him.)

The greed in Thanos' eyes is dark and sickly, an oil slick spreading through a clean ocean. It makes Stephen feel nauseous just to see it. 

Thanos will not stop until he is stopped. And Stephen cannot stop him now.

Not  _now._

But Stephen is the guardian of the Time Stone, the  _wielder_ of the Time Stone, and Time bends to his will.

He closes his fingers around it, blocking its light from Thanos' hungry eyes. 

"God, I hope I get to watch you die," he says to himself,

and he closes his eyes,

and he reaches back, back, back - 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen opens his eyes to the Cloak slapping Tony Stark's hand away from an artifact in the entry hall of the Sanctum. Wong glances at him out of the corner of his eye, sensing that something is different.

"Gentlemen," Stephen says, because he has always had a flair for the dramatic, "I believe we have an alien mass-murderer to stop."

**Author's Note:**

> this... might be continued. maybe. if y'all want it to be continued.


End file.
